“Say away, sir.  I look more to what people mean than what they say.”

“Well, no doubt, he has been struck by her beauty; but their positions are different, and he has only seen her for a week or two.  Besides, he knows that you and she are fond of one another.  I believe he is only idle and thoughtless.  If I thought for a moment that he was contemplating a blackguardly act, he should be no friend of mine, and I would not only tell him so, but I would give him a good kicking, or look on with pleasure while you did it.  But you must be quiet, Hawkstone, at present, for you know nothing, and a quarrel would only do you harm all round.”

“It’s not so easy to be quiet.  The neighbours are beginning to talk, sir, though they don’t let me hear what they say.  I can see by their looks.  What business has he to sit beside her on the quay?  He is making a fool of her and of me.  I cannot bear it.  Sometimes I feel as if I should go mad.  I don’t know what those poor creatures in the Bible felt when they were possessed by the devil, but I believe he comes right into me when I think of this business.”  Then he bent over the boat and covered his face with his arms, and his great broad back heaved up and down, like a boat on the sea.  Glenville left him alone, and puffed away vigorously at a cigar he was smoking in order to quiet his own feelings, which had been more excited than he liked.

After a few minutes, Hawkstone raised his head as if from a sleep, and suddenly exclaimed, “Hey, sir!  The wind and the sea have not been idle while we have been talking.  We must be sharp now.  Shout to your friends, sir.  I cannot shout just yet, I think.”

Glenville shouted as loud as he was able.

“That won’t do, I’m afeard,” said Hawkstone, and he gave a loud halloo, which rang from cliff to cliff, and brought out a cloud of gulls, sailing round and round for a while in great commotion, but soon disappearing into the cliffs again.

We were most of us already descending when we heard Hawkstone’s voice; the boat was soon ready; but where were Thornton and his lady love?  After waiting a while, Hawkstone shouting more than once, it was proposed that someone should go in search for them.  Hawkstone was getting very impatient, and warned us we should have a hard struggle to get home again.

“It will be a bad job if we cannot get round the point,” cried he, “for then we shall have to land in the bay, and although there will be no danger if we get off soon, yet the ladies will get a wetting, and maybe the boat will be damaged.  We shall just get a little water going out, for the surf is running in strong.”

“It is very wonderful,” said Mrs. Bagshaw, “how suddenly the wind rises on this coast, and the waves answer to the lash like wild colts.  The change from calm to storm is most remarkable.”

“Very,” thought I to myself, when I called to mind the sudden changes of temper which I had noticed in her.